Daron Malakian is the only member of System of a Down born in the US and though being of Armenian-Iraqi descent (with both parents being artists that moved to Hollywood from Armenia only a year before his birth), Daron has expressed, more than any other member of System of a Down, being influenced and corrupted by American society.

Daron, an only child, was first brought up in a one bedroom apartment in Hollywood where the family's funds often ran thin. Daron claimed to have had a

Daron in elementary school

very lonely childhood, surrounded by crime and poverty. When Daron was eleven, the Malakians had saved enough money to buy a house in Glendale, California, where Daron attended Roosevelt Middle School, then the Rose & Alex Pilibos School (the Armenian-American school where System of a Down members Serj Tankian and Shavo Odadjian also attended).

Daron was extremely unmotivated in school, and by the time that his studies had suffered enough for him to be removed from private school and placed into public Glendale High School, he had very little concern with completing courses in school, and was becoming far more actively interested in "creative" activities such as playing the drums and the guitar. He says that his music was first inspired by his father Vartan Malakian's career in painting and choreography.

Daron's academic negligence was soon accompanied by violent tendencies in and out of school. He found himself being involved in neighbourhood gangs and becoming even less concerned with advancing in school or anything else besides his music.

Malakian dated American model Jessica Miller (wife of Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich) from 2003 until 2010. He is currently dating lawyer Gayane Khechoomian, the two began dating in late 2017, after being spotted together at a WWE event.